1. Field of the Invention
The present application relates to a light emitting diode (LED) lamp and a manufacturing method for the same, and more particularly, to an LED lamp having a reduced number of parts and accordingly having reduced material costs. The LED lamp has a cover portion and a heat radiating structure mounted integrally to a housing, and assembly of the LED lamp is facilitated by enabling the assembly of parts to be performed in a horizontal direction. The application further describes a method of manufacturing the LED lamp.
2. Description of Related Art
A light emitting diode (LED) refers to a semiconductor device that emits light as an electric current flows through the device. The LED can refer to a p-n junction diode formed of gallium arsenic (GaAs), Ga nitride (GaN), or other appropriate optical semiconductor materials, which converts electrical energy to optical energy in response to current flowing through the junction diode.
Recently, blue LEDs and ultraviolet (UV) LEDs have been introduced which incorporate nitrides having excellent physical and chemical characteristics. Since the blue LEDs or UV LEDs can be used to produce white light or other monochromatic lights using a phosphor material, the LEDs can be used in a wide range of applications.
LEDs have a relatively long lifetime, and can be made to have small sizes and low weight. Since the light emission of LEDs has good directivity, LEDs can be driven using low-amplitude voltages. In addition, LEDs are durable against impact and vibration and do not require preheating and complicated driving, making them useful for a wide variety of uses. For example, LEDs are used in applications spanning small lighting for mobile terminals, general interior and exterior lighting, vehicle lighting, backlight units (BLU) for large-area liquid crystal display (LCD), and the like.
LED lamps are used in an increasingly wide variety of applications. However, the high price of LED lamps remains an important factor in consumers' decisions to adopt LED lights and lighting systems. Therefore, a reduction in material costs of LED lamps could greatly expand the LED lamp market. However, because of structural characteristics of commonly used LED lamps, material costs of such lamps are difficult to bring down.
Commonly used LED lamps are structured in such a manner that a printed circuit board (PCB) having an LED mounted to one surface is mounted to a housing. A circuit is inserted inside the housing, while a cover portion of the housing covers the PCB and the LED. That is, a plurality of parts are vertically connected, thereby constituting the LED lamp.
However, the vertical connection structure requires a large number of parts and complicates assembly. In addition, the large number of parts need to be separately manufactured (e.g., the separate housing and cover), making it difficult to reduce the material costs of the lamps.
Accordingly, there is a need for new LED lamps having simplified structures that facilitate assembly and reduce material costs.